Starflight by Melissa Landers

Summary from Goodreads:

Life in the outer realm is a lawless, dirty, hard existence, and Solara Brooks is hungry for it. Just out of the orphanage, she needs a fresh start in a place where nobody cares about the engine grease beneath her fingernails or the felony tattoos across her knuckles. She's so desperate to reach the realm that she's willing to indenture herself to Doran Spaulding, the rich and popular quarterback who made her life miserable all through high school, in exchange for passage aboard the spaceliner Zenith.

When a twist of fate lands them instead on the Banshee, a vessel of dubious repute, Doran learns he's been framed on Earth for conspiracy. As he pursues a set of mysterious coordinates rumored to hold the key to clearing his name, he and Solara must get past their enmity to work together and evade those out for their arrest. Life on the Banshee may be tumultuous, but as Solara and Doran are forced to question everything they once believed about their world—and each other—the ship becomes home, and the eccentric crew family. But what Solara and Doran discover on the mysterious Planet X has the power to not only alter their lives, but the existence of everyone in the universe...

Review:

I needed this book. Really, I did. It was fun, light, humorous, and full of Cowboy Bebop nostalgia. It was the exact book I needed to get me through a long week of late nights, stomach bugs, and a certain inauguration. Basically, this was a great and fun distraction from it all.

I’ve gotten a lot more into sci-fi in the last few years. That may have something to do with my boyfriend (also a librarian) and it being his favorite genre. And I guess there is something to be said for books taking place in outer space to be the ultimate form of escape. Add so many other great YA ingredients to that, and you have this book.

There’s adventure, disguise, revenge, pirates, deadly fights, other planet travel, super scary bad guys/trackers, politics, romance, family drama, kleptomaniacs, cute alien creatures called sugar gliders, and plenty more. People compare the story to the show, Firefly, and I can see the comparisons, though I like to compare it more to Cowboy Bebop. It has that sort of western outlaw vibe for sure.

I was actually surprised by how some of the plot ended. I wasn’t expecting a certain twist at all. However, I loved it. I remember finishing, and wishing there was more, but also being glad that it did seem to have a good ending. So of course, today, I realized there’s a sequel coming out in a month! It looks like it’s a bout a different set of characters on the crew, but I’m so excited!

All in all, I loved this. It was a riveting distraction. And I hope the humor and pacing of it remain in the sequel. I give it a 9/10.